Family dynamics and Internet use in Britain: What role do children play in adults' engagement with the Internet?

Abstract

The importance of considering the family context in the adoption and use of the Internet are well recognised. Supporters of the digital inclusion agenda often see children as a way to increase the digital skills and use of the Internet by parents and older adults. However, there is a limited amount of research that has explored whether this is really the case. Using two nationally representative survey data sets from Britain, this paper aims to better understand the links between children and adults' use of the Internet within the same household. In this paper, we ask what influence children have on adults' Internet use, skills and engagement. The paper concludes that while children might influence uptake, characteristics of the adult (for example. education, age and social capital) are more important in relation to their skills and engagement with the Internet.

Keywords:

• digital inclusion
• young people
• parents
• families
• children
• Internet use

Notes on contributors

Dr Rebecca Eynon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and a Research Lecturer in the Department of Education, University of Oxford. [email: [email protected]]

Dr Ellen Helsper is an Associate Professor in the Media and Communications Department of the London School of Economics. [email: [email protected]]

Notes

1 For detailed descriptions of the questions, see the questionnaire at http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis.

2 The measures used here reflect the everyday social and digital resources available to people both in terms of the availability of close social networks and as regards support networks in relation to using the Internet. For a more detailed discussion on these operationalisations of social capital, see Helsper (2012) and digital support networks (Eynon & Malmberg, 2012). Operationalisations of bridging types of social capital were not included as part of this study as they are not appropriate for the focus of this paper.

3 For detailed descriptions of the questions, see the questionnaire at http://eukidsonline.net.